21st Century Culture Reflected in Television, Movies, and Electronic Games

Culture/Movies/Television/Games

21st century culture is reflected in television, movies and electronic games. With the advent of the Internet, the ways people got their information changed dramatically. In the last ten years, websites have grown more sophisticated and the use of social media tools has become a phenomenon. Just as culture is reflected in various media, media itself has become a significant part of today's culture.

It is popular, and all too easy, to blame the decline of newspaper readership on the Internet. In fact, the decline in newspaper readership began during the Depression as the radio became more widely used. During the late 1960s, there was another big decline in readership when there was an increase in network television viewership (XXX, p. 270). In order to remain competitive in this culture shift, newspapers had to make some changes in the way they did business. In 1980, the Columbia Dispatch became the first paper to go online). Relatively few people had access to computers, so it is doubtful this feature brought about a significant increase in readership. Still, it was a revolutionary idea that inspired other papers to follow suit and today, most U.S. papers have a Web presence. The second big change for newspapers was the introduction of USA Today in 1982. The paper "openly acknowledge[d] television's central role in mass culture" (XXX, p. 261), using lots of color, photographs, and a writing style that was more similar to television news than print news stories of the past. The paper even used vending boxes designed to look like color televisions in a clever marketing ploy to blur the lines between print and broadcast news. The public quickly embraced USA Today and it is now the most widely circulated paper in the country.

USA Today featured more stories on pop culture than had previously been seen in newspapers, and as early as 1992, media critic Jon Katz noted that daily papers were losing their status as the primary source for news. News -- and the definition expanded to not only include information but "entertainment, persuasion and analysis" (XXX, p. 261) -- was now coming from talk shows, sitcoms, movies, and popular music.

Television and movies also began to change in the 1960s and 1970s, reflecting changing American culture. In the 1950s, television shows such as Father Knows Best and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet portrayed idealized American families -- the core of the Great American Dream (XXX, p. 419). The tumultuous 1960s, with civil rights demonstrations, race riots, student protests, the women's movement, and the anti-Vietnam War movement, all contributed to a great cultural shift. More women entered the workforce, people of color gained a stronger voice, and America's younger generation rebelled against authority. With a groundbreaking television show like All in the Family, audiences were introduced to flawed characters, language previously unheard on television, and irreverent humor. Culture was reflected in the movies, too. The Pawnbroker does not seem very shocking today, but its release in the 1960s sparked such an outcry that it led, in part, to the development of the movie rating system (XXX, p. 513).